Buttpads, Thrifting, Nightcrawler and Tokyo Police Club

Hello hello! Today is a good day because it is a Thursdays, and I have no classes on Thursday!

I used today to catch up with my friend Priscilla, who I haven't properly seen for over a month. We decided to go on an adventure to Chinatown.

~~Buttpads~~

Vancouver has the largest Chinatown in all of North America. Did you know that? I haven't had a chance to go since moving here, although I had been there briefly, 2 summers ago when I was vacationing in Vancouver with my family. We had stopped at a foodcourt for lunch, I think. The only vivid memory I have of the experience was that there was a store selling butt pads.I am unsure what the actual word for these things are but they are sort of like underwear, except they have heavy padding on the back,  so when they are on, they make your butt appear larger than it really is. Also, I was unsure why there was a store like this in a food court, but anyways: this shop had hung these butt pad things right out at the front of the store, and as I was trying to take a picture, I accidentally caught the store owners attention, who proceeded to glare at me, and so I wasn't able to get a good photo. 

Well, despite the size of Chinatown, today, Priscilla and I somehow ended up in the exact same food court, and guess what? The store, and the butt pads were still there! And this time, I was able to get my shot. Here it is:

beautiful

Mission accomplished. 

Anyways, the rest of our Chinatown trip was pretty uneventful. I bought a stuffed lapras (a Pokemon, if you didn't know) for my brother as a belated birthday gift, but I regretted it within 20 minutes. It was 14 dollars, small, the shell is PURPLE instead of grey (a travesty, really), and my brother doesn't even particularly like lapras.  But the shop-owner was really pushy, and I panicked.

~~Thrifting~~

To top that off, later, when we wandered out of Chinatown we found a vintage, high-end thrift store, where I fell in LOVE with a beautiful floral skirt, and a pair of sunglasses, but couldn't buy either of them because I'd wasted my money on a crappy stuffed animal. Boo.

I resent that lapras so much right now.

But, I did find a huge box of old comics, 50 cents per issue, at a game shop. I picked out 5 Excalibur comics (which are worth $16 dollars together today), but I got them for $2.50 total so that was rad. I've been wanting to read the original Excalibur series for a long time, due to my Nightcrawler obsession, but I haven't had the money/resources to do so. 

~~Nightcrawler~~

SPEAKING OF NIGHTCRAWLER: Amazing X-Men Volume 2, Issue 5 came out yesterday. It is the fifth and final issue in a 5-part story arc called "The Quest for Nightcrawler". Basically, for all you non X-men fans, Nightcrawler (an X-men) died 3 years ago in an extremely tragic and heroic scene that I'm not going to talk about or else I will become overly emotional. (If you're interested, you can read about him here, description of his death is under the "sacrifice" tab). Anyways, for 3 years I have mourned the loss of my favourite superhero. Imagine my happiness when he made a return to comics at the end of last year. Though, he was still dead despite his reapperance-- in this series, he helps his old X-Men team in a battle against his father, from the afterlife. BUT I AM PRETTY CERTAIN THEY BROUGHT HIM BACK TO LIFE IN THE ISSUE RELEASED YESTERDAY. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

I hope so, anyways. I'm going to pick up the issue tomorrow after class. I'll let you know how it goes.

~~Tokyo Police Club~~

Anyways, back to today's adventure. On the bus ride back home, we passed a series of posters advertising the release of Forcefield, the new album by one of my ALL-TIME favourite bands, Tokyo Police Club:

THIS WAS REALLY EXCITING FOR ME BECAUSE TOKYO POLICE CLUB ARE AN INCREDIBLE INDIE GROUP FROM THE TORONTO AREA, WHO I ONLY KNOW OF BECAUSE THEY ARE A BIG DEAL IN THE LOCAL MUSIC SCENE THERE. Aside from that, they're not too well known, so seeing their poster all the way out here on the west coast was really awesome. You can listen to their new album here, or check out their website here (sidenote: I think I might do a review of the album and post it sometime in the next week--stay tuned!)

This post turned into a complete novel. My apologies! Before I go though, have a bus-ride shot:

on the 22, over the bridge

Thanks for reading! I hope you all had as good of a day as I did. Good vibes to ya. x

Adventure Log: Entry 1

Today after class, I bused into town to pick up some fabric (yay!) Afterwards, I decided to do a bit of exploring, since it was a part of town I'd never really seen.

I love Vancouver so stupidly much. I love that it is a "hilly" city, so on certain streets you can see how everything is built on an incline. I love the way downtown is such a crowded place with it's big city vibe, but behind it you can see the mountains! I think I love the mountains more than anything. If you take any of the buses that go down 4th avenue (the 4, 44, 84), you can see the mountains pretty clearly in the distance. But, most people don't seem to even notice that they're there, and that appalls me. I suppose they are 'real' Vancouverites who are used to living near mountains, and I guess they find them ordinary. I just don't think I could ever get used to them! We don't have mountains in southern Ontario.

It sort of makes you wonder what sorts of beautiful and fascinating things in one's life go unnoticed simply because one is accustomed to them. If people can get tired of mountains, what else could they take for granted? I wonder what little things in my own life I fail to appreciate, that someone else might care deeply for.

I guess you can't really know the answer to these things. That sort of bothers me. I try my best to consciously take note of all that I am privileged to have, but I'm sure some things slip through the cracks.

I digress. This post was just supposed to be about the city. I hadn't meant for this to become so self reflective. Oops. Anyways, here are some crappy phone pictures from my mini-adventure: 

cloudy sky/distance skyline

trees/roof/mountain

quaint little street

I know a lot of people hate cloudy days, but I think Vancouver is oddly charming when its cloudy. Wouldn't you agree?
Maybe I'll bring my camera next time I go exploring so I can get some good quality photos.

(Note: I'll probably be posting quite a bit for the next little while, just to get this blog up and running. After that, it'll be more of a once/twice a week sort of deal.)

First/Welcome Post!

Since grade 9, I've considered creating a 'real' blog (sorry tumblr), and here I finally am! This is an exciting day for me. Realistically, Its probably a good thing I didn't create a blog at the incredibly wise age of 13, but I'm sure 9th grade me would be proud.

First things first-- introductions.

Hi! My name is Betty and I'm an 18 year old college student. I live in Vancouver, but I grew up in the suburbs of Toronto, where you can still find me during non-school months. Probably.

I plan to be posting a mix of thoughts, and as well as documentations of various personal projects (written pieces, drawings, crafts, adventures, etc.) You'll probably also get updates about my latest music obsessions (currently Vampire Weekend), as well as a shameful amount of selfies. 

But we'll see.

Really, I haven't done much planning, but overall, this blog is meant to be a positive space where I can post whatever I like. But of course, this is as much for you as it is for me, so I hope you all enjoy reading!